Assassin's Creed

Posted: 11/13/07

Assassin’s Creed Review

How many big budget games in the past year have not been first-person shooters? You can count them on one hand. When publishers consider that they need to sell over a million copies of an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game to turn a profit, risk is not generally a part of the equation. Shooters are the safe bet these days, and no publisher knows that better than Ubisoft, which is why it’s all the more surprising that it went out on a limb with Assassin’s Creed—one of the most innovative, imaginative games to be released in years.

Story

We’ll get one thing out of the way first. There’s a huge twist that we’re not going to ruin for you, and the story’s score has been rated with this in mind. With disclaimers out of the way, we can talk about what amounts to 90 percent of the experience.

You play as Altair [all-tie-air], an assassin from the third crusade. His band of silent killers are at perpetual war with the templars, a group of invaders bent on domination. Altair and his allies are in search of a great treasure when they suddenly come into contact with the templars, who also have their eyes set on the prize. A confrontation ensues and Altair ends up on the short end of the stick. Returning to his master with his tail between his legs, he is stripped of his rank and weapons, forced to earn them once again. To do this he must locate and assassinate nine different leaders who are spreading corruption throughout the land.

While we won’t mention what the twist is, we can say that it provides something in a video game story that is rarely present—duality. Altair’s main quest presents the player with moral issues that cloud the waters between right and wrong, making for a thoughtful, clever story that will keep you guessing until the end.

Design

Once Altair loses his abilities and equipment, the game goes into full-on Metroid mode. As he polishes off each target, a couple are restored to him. That’s not to say that he’s a walking arsenal. His instruments are simple yet effective with a sword, throwing knives, and a hidden blade his only death-dealing devices.

When you initially boot up the game it can be a little confusing. You’ll discover horse travel right away, which allows you to traverse the kingdom’s overworld in search of the game’s three cities, slicing enemies along the way. Once you’ve visited all three boroughs you’ll have the option to simply warp there, which is a welcomed feature considering the miles of terrain that separate them.

Once inside a city there’s a strict series of events that you must complete. First, you must visit the local assassin’s bureau to gather clues on the whereabouts of your target. The second step is to climb tall structures to survey the area. This will plot points on your map for other lookouts, and mission objectives. The third is to complete the mission objectives. While there are six investigative objectives total per hit, you’re only asked to complete two or three before moving onto the next step, which is the actual assassination. Mission objectives aren’t all that varied, and this process repeats nine times throughout the course of the game. By the end, you’ll have had your fill of pick pocketing, roughing people up for information, and talking to informants.

Calling Assassin’s Creed an open-ended game is a bit of a stretch. While you have your choice of a few missions to complete out of six and you can choose the order of your targets to assassinate, that’s basically where the flexibility ends. There are other side objectives like saving citizens who are being tortured by templars or collecting hidden flags scattered around each city, but neither is really worth the effort.

Assassin’s Creed will last you a good 12-15 hours depending on your skill level, which is pretty beefy by today’s standards. There’s not much incentive to keep playing once the quest is done, and there’s no online functionality to speak of.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Assassin’s Creed is basically broken down into two categories: navigation and combat. The game has been billed as offering complete navigational freedom and it undoubtedly delivers. You can run up most walls and get a handhold, and then start climbing simply by holding the analog stick in whatever direction you want Altair to go. He automatically adapts to whatever hand- and footholds are available. There are no buttons to press, and it can seem almost too easy until you have a dozen soldiers chasing after you--navigating the terrain just as quickly.

Jumping doesn’t require much input, either. You can simply hold the right trigger and a button and he’ll automatically jump from one object to another, whether it be posts jutting from stucco, rooftops, scaffolding, or hanging platforms. And it all looks so natural. There are no awkward transition animations or moments where Altair looks like anything other than a bad ass. We don’t know how Ubisoft Montreal did it, but it’s definitely a step forward for the industry.

Unfortunately, the combat doesn’t fare quite as well--mainly due to moronic enemies. Once Altair regains the ability to pull off counter kills, any tension during combat is basically lost. Counter kills are executed using the right trigger and tapping the attack button just as enemies swing. The result is some of the most brutal sword attacks you’ll ever see, and instant kills. There are times where there will be almost a dozen enemies surrounding Altair, yet they’ll all wait their turn to attack, idiotically watching comrade after comrade be slaughtered. It would be a game breaker if it weren’t for the crowd running mechanic and interaction with the game world.

As Altair makes his way around the city he’s under varying levels of scrutiny, and as such there are two different types of travel he can choose. If he’s trying to be stealthy, then low profile travel is the way to go--allowing him to gently push other characters away or blend in with groups of monks to sneak into new parts of the city. The issue here is that when you select the blend option Altair might as well turn invisible. Suddenly enemies are oblivious to his existence, resulting in some absolutely ridiculous moments.

If he’s in a hurry, you can pull the right trigger to go into high profile mode, which makes him run a lot faster, but puts him at risk of bouncing off the wrong person and alerting the enemy. Once this happens you must break the line of sight and then hide. Ducking into a stack of hay or a rooftop cabana makes perfect sense, but simply sitting down on a bench does not. Even so, escaping provides white knuckle moments as you desperately try to elude the agile enemies.

Assassin’s Creed is one of those games that breaks new ground, but fails in nailing some fundamentals. The counterkills are exhilarating, but the brain dead enemies zap a lot of the tension. On the other hand, free running along the roof tops—bounding off every last nook and cranny of terrain—is something that everyone should experience.

Presentation

Grand Theft Auto III was the first game to really display a living, breathing city in full 3D, but oh how far we’ve come. The city streets in Assassin’s Creed are absolutely stunning. They’re packed full of unique character models, all walking and interacting with one another in a completely natural way. Toss in rubbing elbows with the unpredictable Altair and you have the recipe for a game that has to be seen to be believed. The game is so full of unpredictability, yet Altair never appears to move synthetically. The way he scans wall faces for handholds or transitions smoothly from one action to the next is something like we’ve never seen.

There are a few forgivable issues, like terrain drawing in and some serious bouts of clipping, but when the sun becomes blotted out by the clouds or you look across a city in its entirety with no visual hang-ups all is forgiven.

The voice acting is just as able, with compelling performances from the smallest of parts. Every citizen on the street has something to say in reaction to the events around them, and Assassin’s gets some great mileage out of it.

Conclusion

The first half of Assassin’s Creed is a truly clairvoyant experience. You’ve never played anything like it. The sagacious story, incalculable crowd interaction, and unprecedented freedom to traverse the environment how you choose are landmark moments. Over time, repetition rears its ugly head, combat becomes a necessary routine, and dimwitted foes snatch you out of the third crusade and remind you that you’re playing a game. The potential here is undeniable, but there’s been some dust swept under the rug that places a blemish on an otherwise beautiful piece of art.

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